ACS · Lecture
How to cite a lecture in ACS
A lecture citation credits a talk, seminar, or class presentation you attended or watched. The classic mistakes are citing the slide deck when you mean the spoken talk, and citing course lectures for claims the lecturer was themselves citing from published work.
Worked example · ACS
(1) Lovelace, A. Designing Mixed-Methods Studies, 2024. https://www.example.org/lectures/mixed-methods.
Rendered with the official ACS style file from a placeholder source (reserved example DOI and domain), so the format is exactly what the style produces. In text: This generator renders the numeric variant, with references numbered in citation order.
What to collect before you cite a lecture
- The speaker
- The lecture title
- The event, course, or venue
- The date it was delivered
- A URL if a recording or slides are archived
Have a DOI? Generate the reference instantly
Journal articles, many books and reports carry a DOI. Paste it and get the ACS entry from the same engine that produced the example above.
Citing a whole thesis, not one source?
CiteDash keeps your bibliography in ACS automatically, verifies every citation against a real paper, and compiles to DOCX, PDF or LaTeX.
Citing a lecture in ACS: FAQ
Should I cite the lecture or the source it drew on?
For examinable claims, find and cite the published source the lecturer used. Cite the lecture itself when the lecture is the point: original unpublished ideas or your evidence of what was said.
The lecture is not recorded anywhere. Can readers still verify it?
No, which is why some styles treat unrecorded talks as personal communications cited in text only. Where a recording or deposited slides exist, cite those.
How do slides differ from the lecture?
Slides are a document with their own format in most styles, usually as an online presentation. Cite what you actually used: the deck, the recording, or the live talk.
What does the in-text citation look like in ACS?
This generator renders the numeric variant, with references numbered in citation order.
Is the example on this page hand-written?
No. It is rendered by the same citation engine and official CSL style file CiteDash uses for full thesis bibliographies, from a clearly-marked placeholder source, and a test re-renders it on every release so the page can never drift from the engine.